Turn with me to 1 Chronicles
chapter 29, if you would please. 1 Kings, 2 Kings, and then 1 Chronicles. Give you a moment to find it. 1 Chronicles chapter 29, verse
11. David here speaking says, thine,
O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the
victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in the
earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor
come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in Thy hand is
power and might, and in Thy hand it is to make great and to give
strength unto all. Sounds to me like God is sovereign
and in control. Someone asked you to do something
for them, and you're not sure that you can do it. Not that
you don't have the time to do it, not that you don't want to
do it, but you're not sure if you can do it. You're not sure
if you have the ability to do it. You desire to do it for them,
but you don't have the competence and your ability to do it. So
you say, I sure will try. I sure will try. You say, I will
if I can. You say, I want to, and I will
if I am able. Now the word try, as you know,
means to make an attempt or an effort to do something. to strive
and endeavor to achieve or attain. The word want means to have a
desire to possess or to do something, to have a need to fulfill. These
aren't hard words. We know what they mean, to have
a lack of something, to be short of something, to have a need
of something. Someone has a need and you're
going to try to fulfill it because you really want them to have
it because they need it. The word need, another simple
word, means to require, to be under obligation, to yearn for,
to pine for, to long for, to crave, to have necessity, to
have difficulty, trouble, distress, crisis, urgency, or emergency
for something. We know what these words mean.
And you and I are the ones who try, who want, and need so many
things. but not God. The God of modern
day religion is trying, He's wanting, and He's desiring, and
in need of the sinner to do something in order to help Him save them. You know what I say to that?
He can't be God. That God cannot be God. God doesn't
need anything, Acts 17, 25. This is not something I came
up with. This is what God says in the scriptures. He said himself,
if he was hungry, he wouldn't tell us because the world is
his and the fullness thereof. God doesn't need anything from
us. Why do we think that? Why do men think that God needs
us? This, my friends, is the reason we should never, and I
repeat, never use the words try and the words want or need in
reference to God's will and purpose in doing. He never tries, He
does. He never wants, He has. He never needs, He Himself is
all sufficient. We try, we want, and we need,
but not God, not God. That's what this book declares.
So are we gonna believe God or are we gonna believe man? Are
we gonna trust God or are we gonna trust ourselves? Why is
the gospel offensive to so many? You ever thought about it? Why
do so many get mad when they hear the gospel? Why is sovereign
grace so offensive? Why is the cross of Christ so
offensive? That's what Paul called it. He
called it the offense of the cross. Why is the cross so offensive? The great offense of the cross
to the Jewish nation was the fact that Christ alone was declared
to be the atonement for sin. Not obedience to the law. Not
what man must himself do, because man couldn't do it. Right? The scriptures were clear. The
Old Testament law said, if you're going to offer something to God,
that offering must be perfect in order to be accepted. And
you and I can't offer something that's perfect. It's flawed. It's tainted by sin. Man couldn't
keep the law and he certainly couldn't perfectly keep it. And you know, this is still what
makes the cross offensive today. Men want to have something to
do with their salvation. Men do not object to God ruling
the wind, the waves, and even the world, just as long as he
doesn't rule men's hearts. Men do not object to God creating
the heavens and creating light and life on the earth, just as
long as he doesn't create light and life in the dead, dark heart,
apart from man's cooperation and will. Men have no real problem
with God controlling the everyday affairs of the world as long
as it doesn't affect them in any way. But men have a real
problem with God being sovereign in the matter of salvation. Why
is that? What did God mean when He told
Moses, I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and will
show mercy on whom I'll show mercy? What did He mean? He meant exactly what He said.
God says what He means, and He means what He says. My mother
did, so I know my God does. A sovereign, omnipotent God always
does. And that's where and why men
and women are offended. Dead sinners hate the choosing
and election of God on the basis of what they call fairness. It's not fair that God choose
one and not another. It's not fair that God love one
and hate another. But when it comes to God, fairness
is not a matter or a consideration. Because everything that God does
is not only fair, but it's right. Everything God does is good. If God has mercy on some, that's
good. Because none deserve his mercy.
And if God doesn't have mercy on another, it's good too. For
all deserve wrath, condemnation, and judgment. The fact that he
has mercy on some is more than fair. If God give us what was
fair, all of us would be in hell. Whatever God does is good. Whatever
God does is more than fair. And our Lord asked that question. He said, is it not lawful, is
it not right for me to do what I will with my own? Matthew 14,
Paul. Not long ago, Teresa and I decided
to paint our house. We decided to paint it white.
I don't know if my neighbors liked it or not. Some did because
they told us, but not a single neighbor knocked on our door
while we were having it painted and said, I'm your neighbor and
you can't paint your house white. And it didn't matter if they
did. Because it wasn't their house. It was mine and Teresa's
house. And if we were just renting the
house, it wouldn't be lawful. It wouldn't be right for us to
paint it any color. Because it wouldn't have been
ours to paint. But it was our house, and we
could have painted it pink, purple, or even black if we had wanted. And it would have been right
and lawful for us to do so. because it was our house. Follow
me? We had the right. It was lawful
for us to do what we would with what was ours. Does God not have the same right? Even more so, for he's the creator
of all things. All things belong to Him. All
things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that
was made, John 1, 3. Everything belongs to Him. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by Him and for Him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. Colossians 1, 16 and
17. And friends, in the matter of
election, God's choosing and God's saving of a sinner, folks
often say, doesn't everyone deserve a chance? Salvation's not by
chance. Salvation is by choice, God's
choice, not ours. Paul, Who chose Anna to be your wife?
All of you. Who chose Anna to be your wife?
You can answer. Who chose Anna to be your wife?
You did. I'll tell you. John didn't. Kevin didn't. You did. John, as a young boy, didn't
say, Dad, I picked out your wife and her name's Anna. You chose
your wife. Do we dare deny God the same
right? Glenn and Jerry moved to Hanson,
Kentucky and they bought a house. I didn't choose that house for
them. They decided themselves where they were going to live.
It was their money, it was their decision. Does God not have the
right to choose His own temple? When did God become our servant? I'd like to know, when did God
become our servant? Since when does God serve us? Now here in 1 Chronicles 29,
David is speaking to all the congregation of Israel. And in
reference to building the temple of the Lord, in verse one, he
says, look at it, Solomon my son, now watch this, whom alone
God hath chosen. David is saying, you didn't choose
my son to build the temple. I didn't choose him to build
the temple. Solomon didn't even choose himself to build the temple. David said, whom alone God hath
chosen. God chose him to build the temple.
David said, Solomon is young and tender and the work is great.
And look at what he says here. For the palace is not for man,
but for the Lord God. The temple Solomon was going
to build was not man's temple. It was the Lord's temple. It
was the place that the Lord would be worshiped. Now stay with me. It was not the place that God
would serve man. It's the place that man would
serve God. In verse 2, David continues, and he declares, Now
I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God, the
gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things
of silver, and the brass for things of brass. The iron for
things of iron and wood for things of wood, onyx stones and stones
to be set, glistening stones of diverse colors, and all manner
of precious stones and marble stones in abundance. David said,
I prepared the materials to build it. The gold, the silver, the
brass, the iron, the wood, the onyx stones, all types of stones,
glistening stones of color, precious stones, the marble. He said, I gathered it. but it's
not mine, it's not mine. Look at verse 16. Oh Lord our
God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee a house
for thine holy name cometh of thine hand and is all thine own. David is saying, whatever I have,
whatever I offer unto you, whatever we gather to build your temple,
you gave it to us, and it's all yours. Look at verse 14. He says, but who am I and what
is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after
this sword? For all things come of thee,
and of thine own have we given thee." All we have to give to
God is what He's already given us. Why? He even gave us the life,
He gave us the hearts, He gave us the bread to praise, worship,
and to thank Him. God gave it all to us. Anyone who gives to the cause
of Christ and acts as though if they're doing God some great
favor, or provided some charity to God, don't know God. Everything
we have but our sin, God gives us. That's something that we
can truly call our own, our sin. You know, my parents gave me
my first car, and come to think about it, they gave me my second
one, too. And if my father's truck had
broke down, how great a favor, how great a work of charity would
it have been for me to let him use my car? He gave it to me. By nature, men don't know who
God is. They think that He's altogether
like them. But God's nothing like us. Look
at verse 11 again. Here we see that God's nothing
like us. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the
glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in heaven
and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and thou are exalted as head above all. God is great. We're small and insignificant.
God is powerful. We're without strength. God is
glorious, we're miserable. God is victorious, we're defeated. God is majestic and we are pitiful
and pathetic. And the reason the gospel is
so offensive to men by nature is due to two things. We all
have way too high opinion of ourselves and all of us have
way too low an opinion of God. I heard a man who pastors one
of the biggest religious denominations in town say that God was sovereign
over everything except salvation. Now listen to me, if that's true,
then God's not sovereign at all. When you add the word except
in the description of God's sovereignty, you've already attempted to dethrone
God. Chris, it's nothing short of
an effort to strip God of His attribute of omnipotence. That's exactly what it is. And
it proves the two things that I mentioned. You think way too
low of God and you think way too high of yourself. If there's
one single solitary thing that God is not sovereign and in control
over, and that especially applies to salvation, then God's not
sovereign at all. How can he who is the light and
life of men not be the one that saves them? How ignorant is a sinner who
goes about to establish their own righteousness? Well, preacher,
you shouldn't call somebody ignorant. I didn't, God did. He says they're ignorant of God's
righteousness, the very thing that they must have in order
to be saved. Because your righteousness is
as filthy rags. It won't pay for the first sin.
God is not interested in your filthy rags righteousness. God is not interested in your
heart. God, well, I must give Jesus
my heart. He's not interested in it. It's
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And who can
know it but Him? He knows it. He knows what it
is. And if you're gonna be reconciled to God, He will give you a new
heart. A perfect heart, a holy and upright
heart. And that's what all of us need.
We all got heart trouble. We all need heart transplants. Now, redemption is not offensive,
but effectual redemption is. You let Christ come, you let
him die, rise again to make salvation possible, and nobody's gonna
be offended. But you proclaim that Christ came and died, rose
again, and ascended to be accepted by God to make salvation certain,
and folks will be offended, and they'll get angry, and that vein
in their neck will look like a garden hose. I've seen it. You leave some part of salvation
to the will and the work of the sinner, and you won't offend
anyone. You don't give Christ all the glory and some of it
to man, and man will be a happy camper. Let men decide if Christ's
blood should avail. Why, let men determine if his
work is sufficient. Let men choose God instead of
God choosing them, and no one's gonna be offended. Well, I take
that back. The child of God will. I don't
mind telling you that these lies that men tell on God offend me. But I'm not offended in him and
his gospel. And the Lord Jesus said, and
blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. God's
people aren't offended in him. Well, he's our only hope. He's
the only confidence that we have of being redeemed and reconciled
to God. Why doesn't God save everyone? Well, some people think He does,
but He doesn't. If God saved everyone, there'd be no need
for hell. Why is there hell if God's gonna save everyone? If He saves some, then why not
others? Is it because they're too sinful
and depraved? No, Christ came into the world
to save sinners, and Paul added, of whom I am chief. So if God
saved the chief of sinners, none can be excluded because of their
sin and depravity. So it's not bad. Are some too
stony hearted to be won over? No, because the most stony of
hearts, God will remove and give that one who possessed it a heart
of flesh, a heart that beats and pants after God Almighty.
Are some too stubborn and defiant that God is unable to woo them,
to draw them? No, it's not that. None of us
are more dead than another. You can't be half dead and you
can't be more dead. If God can raise one dead man
or one dead woman, He can raise another. He can do anything. God can do anything. That's so
apparent from verse 11 here in our text. God can do everything. Men hate the true answer and
it offends them. It's God, here's the answer,
it's God who make thee to differ from another. That's what God
said. How do people that don't believe
that deal with that verse? What do we have that we did not
receive? Nothing. If we had life, we received it
from God. It's the gift of God. You're
saved by grace through faith. It's not of yourselves. It is
the gift of God. That's what God says in His Word.
Salvation is not by works. It's the gift of God. If we receive
this life from God, can we glory in it? Not if we received it
as a gift. Boy, that was sure a good gift
that you gave me. Only the giver can glory in it.
And why do we glory as if we didn't receive it? Because we're
ignorant of God's righteousness and we go about to establish
our own. By nature, that's what men do. Most professing believers
don't think that they received it as a gift. They think that
it was caused by a work of righteousness, a choice, a decision, and a will
of their own making. But what did the beloved John
write? He said, and we know that the
Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true. Knowing Him that is true is salvation. Who gave that understanding?
God did. Faith is God's gift, yet all
men have not faith. So God does not bestow this gift
upon all. And people, the first thing out
of their mouth, well that's not fair. As many as were ordained to eternal
life The whole world? No. All that were
ordained to eternal life. But Lord Jesus said the same
thing just another way. He said, but you believe not
because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you. It's the
same thing. God's call is an effectual call. Sovereign, effectual, and yet
despised. It's God which worketh in you,
both to will and to do, of your good pleasure, no, of His good
pleasure. Philippians 2.13. The Lord Jesus
said, no man can come to me, no man has the ability to come
to me, unless the Father who sent me draw him. Why is that? Because man's dead. You ever
seen a dead man go anywhere or do anything? Peter said, according as His
divine power have given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness through the knowledge of Him, Christ, that
hath called us to glory and virtue. We're called to glory and virtue.
And it's an irresistible call. It's... Well, actually, it's
more than irresistible because many often resist it, but only
for a while. That's why I like to refer to
it as invincible. It's invincible, Greg. I think
that's better. It'll long outlast man's resistance
to it. If God sets his affection on
you and sends his grace to fetch you, You may resist it for a
while, but it's invincible. It's invincible grace. You'll
only resist it for a while. It'll long outlast your resistance
to it. If God means to save you, you'll
be saved. For who hath resisted his will? Man's state of total depravity
makes the effectual call of God necessary to save a dead sinner.
The effectual call is God's action toward His people. He created
some before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. Those are going to be holy and
blameless because His call is effectual. He predestinated. He predetermined. Why do people
hate that? He predetermined them. He determined beforehand for
them to be adopted into the Kingdom of God. How? By Jesus Christ
Himself. Why? According to the good pleasure
of His will. God's will. And many find that
offensive. Does one believe and another
not because one is smarter or has better reasoning capabilities? Or is it because God does something
for the one that He saved? The Bible's clear that God saves
His people according to His mercy. through the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Some say, I received Jesus. I
made Jesus Lord. Is that right? God disagrees. God says, but
as many as received him, so there is a receiving, but to them gave
he power to become the sons of God. No receiving apart from
his intervention. even to them that believe on
his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man. How then, but of God." John
1, 12 and 13. Well, in closing here in 1 Chronicles
29, verse 15, We read, for we are strangers
before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers. Our
days on earth are as a shadow, and there's none abiding. Now,
Paul said something very similar. He said, you and I, being in
times past Gentiles in the flesh, were without Christ, and we were
strangers from the covenants of promise. having no hope without
God in this world, but now in Christ Jesus, we who were afar
off are made nigh, drawn to, by the blood of Christ. Look
at verse 16. Oh Lord our God, all this store
that we've prepared to build thee a house for thine holy name
cometh of thine hand and all is thine. And you know what that's
saying? Salvation's of the Lord. The
church is the true tabernacle of the Lord and all that we've
prepared, all that we have, all that God will accept in order
for him to reside in us, he gave us. He did it for us. It comes from His hand. All is
Thine own. Salvations of the Lord. Verse
17, I know also, my God, that Thou triest the heart and hast
pleasure in uprightness. The wise man Solomon said that we've been weighed
in the balance, and what was the conclusion? We found wanting. We've come up short. We've all
come short of the glory of God. He says, as for me and the uprightness
of mine heart, I have willingly offered all these things, and
now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here,
to offer willingly unto thee. We offer willingly unto God our
hearts because He gave us new hearts. There's only one thing that we
can offer that God will accept. You know what it is? No, do you
know who it is? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the very means that God provided for us to save us. Verse 18. O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac,
and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination
of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and prepare their
heart unto thee. And give unto Solomon, my son,
a perfect heart to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, thy statutes,
and to do all these things and to build the palace for the which
I have made provision. Now there's only one way that
you and I can have a perfect heart and perfectly keep His
commandments, His testimonies and statutes perfectly and build
the palace for which Christ the King made the provision in the
Lord Jesus Christ. No other way. God provided everything
that we need to build this temple, his church in whom he resides.
It's not a temple made with hands. It's a temple that God has made
Christ the cheap cornerstone of. He's the foundation. He is the solid rock upon which
this church is built. It wouldn't stand otherwise.
And look at verse 20. And David said to all the congregation,
Now bless the Lord your God. I'm telling you this morning,
those of you that God has revealed this to, bless the Lord your
God. And all the congregation, bless
the Lord God of their fathers. Who did? All the congregation
of the Lord. All those that God had revealed
this glorious truth to. And what did they do? They bowed
their heads and worshiped the Lord and the King. Beloved, our
Lord is the King. He's the King of kings. He's
the Lord of lords. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And no man comes to the Father
but by Him. He is the way, He's the truth,
and He's the life. Well, what do I have to do with
it? Nothing. Nothing. Without me, you can
do nothing. Nothing means nothing. Not something,
not a little bit, not a cooperate, a cooperation. Paul asked, am I an enemy because
I tell you the truth? I don't want to be your enemy. I'm just telling you the truth. I'm telling you what God's Word
says. You know, there was once a young believer that came to
a seasoned pastor, confessing that he was impatient. As often
young men are. I was. I wanted it, and I wanted
it right now. And he asked the seasoned pastor,
the older gentleman, that if he would pray to the Lord to
give him patience. And as the pastor began to pray,
he said, Lord, send this young man trouble. Send him hard trials
and conflict him greatly. And the young man jumped up and
said, whoa, whoa, preacher. He said, I asked you to pray
that I might have patience. And the elder pastor looked at
him and said, son, that's how you get patience. Friends, we'll never understand
the things of God until we see that it's a sovereign God, an
omnipotent God, an almighty God behind it all. And it most certainly
includes our salvation. It's okay for God to create the
heavens and the earth, but it's not okay for Him to speak life
and light unto man's heart. Oh, yes, it is. Yes, it is. When by divine revelation we're
made to see and understand who does the saving, who did the
sinning, then we'll find comfort in this life as a child of God,
just as you find patience from trials and suffering. All things
are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself. How? By Jesus
Christ. God's sovereign. He's always
effectual. And sadly, to the lost, He and
His salvation in Christ will always be offensive to them,
but not to His people. That's the most glorious news
I ever heard. God did for me what I couldn't
and wouldn't do for myself. He made me willing in the day
of His power. Do you believe? If not, may God
be pleased to make it so for his glory, our good, and for
Christ's sake.